Remember when ads used to be long-form, almost essay-like? Championed by Ogilvy and often utilized by ad agencies throughout the 1970s [coke-fueled art directors must have loved working on them] well into the 90s, these types of ads actually took some time to, you know, read. Back when there was time to relax with a magazine.
This full-pager [go here to the Flickr account for the big version in all its 1970s orange glory or click on the ad below] is a perfect example. It’s a bit dated but it’s well written, breezy and does its job. The type justification, though? Shoot me. Ragged left, people. Ragged left.
Whoa, man, like, fire. Far out.
Why are you wearing my clothes?
Mommy, who’s that man with the funny accent on the TV? That’s our president. He’ll make a better ex-president.
I haz menus!
The Thunderbird is currently shuttered. The Red Lion is open and has, um, mixed reviews from visitors.
Wow. We’ve come a long way baby, or, I’m actually going somewhere with this post.
Recent score I picked up: The Greater Portland Guide to Greater Beers.
Published in 1983, the booklet listed a total of 15 restaurants and pubs in the greater Portland area [including one in Vancouver] serving beers on tap that didn’t exclusively serve the usual American swill [Bud, Miller, etc.] of the day. Most served German and UK beers, Canadian [Molson Golden - bleccchh], Red Hook, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and River City Gold straight out of Sacramento. Flipping through the guide I didn’t see many Portland breweries represented because, well, there weren’t that many. One exception was Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve which was listed under the Special Brews from the New World section. So was Michelob. Of course McMenamin’s was formulating its juggernaut brew biz off the ground with its pub in Hillsboro.
As of last count, there were a dozen new breweries/pubs/brewpubs opening in Portland just within a few months. And our airport? Many cities would kill for a beer scene as good as the selection at our airport.
Beer is very important to Oregon’s economy. According to a piece last April by The Oregonian’s John Foyston, the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) claims the industry’s economic impact in Oregon includes 25,696 jobs – paying $761,652,866 in wages – as well as $53,236,572 in federal, state, and local taxes.
There are many excellent local beer blogs doing a fantastic job covering the beer scene, whether it’s introducing new establishments, reviewing beers, interviewing brewers or announcing what’s on tap and where. I read them all religiously. They never fail in pointing me to a new beer to try, new establishment or important information needed in the beer-buying process, such as Portland Growler Prices.
Which leads me to that fact that I’ve occasionally been reviewing beer for Food Dude’s epic Portland Food and Drink, although my last post was last December, giving me a total of, oh, four posts in the last 18 months. Which is to say I haven’t been doing a very good job of it.
Reviewing beer is very subjective. It’s all based on personal taste and the ability to throw out phrases such as “the flavors danced on my tongue” and had “an aggressive malty aftertaste.”
I like some styles [IPAs, stouts, sours] and don’t get others [Lager? It all tastes like Bud to me.] It’s also difficult to pan yet another local but boring body-less ale, especially one made by long established Portland breweries that if it weren’t for them we might not have a beer scene. Or the startup, god bless the startup that has sweat and toiled and breathed beer recipes 24/7 for their new business, who sends a beer that can only be best described as jesusfuckingawful. I don’t have it in me to say- in a public forum- sorry, I know everyone loves brewery X but that latest release? It’s crap, boring, and flavorless and they can do better. Then again, it goes back to personal taste. Someone else might love it.
Maybe I’m just a wuss; a copout. I’ll still privately bitch about beers I hate, why I love others and I guess I’ll keep it to myself…for now.
One idea I’ve been floating around is writing about the buildings that house some our local breweries. I bet there’s some fantastic stories that came with building. Of course, beer will be consumed as posts are being written.
Anyhow, now that you’ve suffered through that self-indulgent claptrap, how about some scans from the guide?
The booklet, by the way, is lovingly crafted, sprinkled with cool, old pub clip art and some spot color. It has a nice heavy-stock 4-color cover and I can imagine it sold pretty well in 1983.
Here we go! Click on the imagery for the big version and details. You’ll also notice a couple of familiar names.
This post written under the influence of a Eugene-based Oakshire Watershed IPA. Fresh, not too hoppy with a nice, clean aftertaste. In fact, Eugene has kind of been kicking Portland’s ass in the beer scene. Ninkasi’s Spring Reign and its Total Domination IPA rule.
Ellis Lucia, photojournalist and author of “The Big Blow” and “Don’t Call It Or-e-gawn” released “Wild Water” in 1965 to commemorate flooding, frigid temps that took place on the Pacific Slope in December of 1964.
Following are some of the photos that illustrate the destruction.
The new John Day Bridge was ripped away, causing three deaths.
That’s a home and debris, leaning against – or floating by - the Morrison Bridge.
The River Queen restaurant, former ferry, “took a romp.” Wonder what ever happened to the River Queen. Here’s the whole story here and great information and current photos from the Ghost Towns forum and the West Coast Ferries Forum. Currently moored in Goble, Oregon and possibly headed for the scrap heap is the scoop. I smell a field trip.
Thomas Rutter from Photomic [his photo blog - check it out] graciously let me post a couple of photos of the same pro-McGovern rally I scanned from The Scribe a couple posts back.
He took the photos as part of a photo-journalism course he was taking that year at PSU. It was the first year he was old enough to vote. Click on the photos for larger views – especially that last street shot. Great stuff.
The good people at the Mid Century Modern League are presenting “Charles Phoenix’s Retro Holiday Slide Show” next month.
From the press release:
Pop Culture Humorist and Author Charles Phoenix brings his live holiday slide show performance to The Hollywood Theater one night only, December 29. In this hilarious Holiday show you’ll see how Americans decorated, dressed up, dined, and drank to celebrate- New Years, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas in the 50s and 60s.
The show is also a benefit for the restoration of the Crown Motel Sign that the MCM League rescued from the wrecking ball last year. It’s in storage in Arciform’s basement, where the group is slowly chipping away at cleaning it up and restoring it, while trying to raise the funds to do it.
Here are the performance details:
Tuesday, December 29 – 7:00 PM
The Hollywood Theater – 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard
Tickets are $15 and are available The Hollywood Theater box office– 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard or online.
Witness with your own eyes God’s Authentic Healing Power!
Where?
KPTV, Sunday, at midnight!
Coburn blew through Portland in August 1974, performing at the Paramount Theater on Broadway. According to the ad, his Deeper Faith Crusade claims that “thousands have experienced documented physical healings.”
I’m obviously making the part up about the used car salesman – then again, his whole shtick seems to be based on hucksterism. Thin line, folks.
From The Oregon Journal, August 9, 1974.
I’ve written about my killer score of finding Portland’s underground newspaper, The Scribe. Here are some photos scanned from the October 12-23, 1972 issue about an anti-war, anti-Nixon, pro-McGovern protest. The turnout wasn’t as high as organizers had wanted or planned. There was a reference to a violent demonstration in May that might have kept some of the protesters away.
“We passed by a beauty school where all the young coiffed beauties’ heads and faces stared curiously down at us. We could smell the hair spray and other gunk down in the streets.”
Give ‘em hell, George.
Kent Ford from the Panthers, among others spoke. Buckman Groats, John Groats, John Willems and the Lighthouse Theater group, among others, performed. All went well.
Marching down Broadway.
The crowd was about a block long, with comfortable spaces between people, who walked along easily long, flashing, I’m sure, in and out from the squads of silly police standing or cycling around.
Boilmakers for McGovern. No clue, here. Anyone?
Lots of kids, of course, and white collar office workers on their lunch breaks, well-dressed West Hill matrons and blue collar workers.
Where do starving Portland protesters go after protesting? Food carts, of course!
Photo of the Hazelwood Building, courtesy of Leftbank.
On a recent taping of Outlook Portland [along with the more well-spoken and clever Brian Libby from Portland Architecture and Cafe Unknown's Dan Haneckow] host Rick Emerson asked me what my favorite Portland building was. Easy question: The Weatherly Building on 516 SE Morrison Street. My answer was somewhere along the lines of “elegant, handsome and a landmark for me when I first moved here from Boston.”
I was also asked what my favorite Portland building was that no longer existed. The answer wasn’t so easy. Being a recent newcomer to Portland [six years!] I really have no emotional attachment to Portland’s architecture. I don’t have memories of hanging out at that one bar that’s no longer there or going shopping at some long-lost store with my parents when I was a kid like long-timers do.
So, my answer wasn’t as concrete as had hoped. I chose Hotel Portland. Built in 1890 and leveled in 1951 for a parking lot [and later Pioneer Courthouse Square so I guess that ultimately makes it a win?] the building was one of the first I became aware of that was unceremoniously mowed down in Portland. A perfectly usable building. It happens a lot here in Portland [enthusiastically starting with urban redevelopment in the 1950s] and it’s ultimately changing the landscape. How many architecturally significant building have met their demise since I’ve moved here? I’ve lost count.
I’m always stymied when a building is demolished. Why tear it down? I’m not naive to think that every building should be saved – and maybe there’s a good reason for demolition, such as crumbling infrastructure, irreversible repairs, or it’s full of lead and asbestos – but simply removing a perfectly sound building because some developer has a woody for a new design concept [and one that will be out of fashion in 20 years, hell, five years - I can spot a 2004 project pretty easily] has to have some sort of checks and balances with the city. I certainly don’t have an answer and don’t know the wonkiness behind what makes Portland officials tick and how projects get pushed through [cough neon rose cough].
Which brings us [finally] to the Leftbank project on Broadway. Get this: the developers took an existing [and historically significant space] and beautifully renovated it into a completely usable space.
I wrote about Leftbank for Neighborhood Notes a couple month’s back, [illustrated by Kenneth Aaron's wonderful photographs] and here’s a blurb:
Originally known as the Hazelwood Building [see above photo], designed and built by architect A.E. Doyle in 1923, the building has a fascinating and notorious history. Once housing a restaurant, creamery, candy manufacturer, the building then morphed into a restaurant, beer hall, stood vacant, and most recently housed manufacturing companies. But the most infamous tenant was the Dude Ranch in the 1940s—ground zero for Portland’s jazz scene in the 1940s that attracted local talent and some heavy national acts such as Lionel Hampton, Art Tatum, Nat “King” Cole and a young Thelonious Monk.
Wow, how lame [and really lazy] is quoting yourself from another source? Very, lame.
Anyhow, I guess my point is that older buildings have a place, especially in the tight Portland land market. Tearing down perfectly fine structures so a developer can build “sustainable” condos is ridiculous. That’s why when a project such as Leftbank launches and succeeds it should be applauded and encouraged.
